In a typical electrostatographic printing process, such as xerography, an image receptor such as a photoreceptor is charged to a substantially uniform potential so as to sensitize the surface thereof. The charged portion of the photoreceptor is exposed to a light image of an original document being reproduced. Exposure of the charged photoreceptor selectively dissipates the charges thereon in the irradiated areas. This records an electrostatic latent image on the photoreceptor corresponding to the informational areas contained within the original document. After the electrostatic latent image is recorded on the photoreceptor, the latent image is developed by bringing a developer material into contact therewith. Generally, the developer material comprises toner particles adhering triboelectrically to carrier granules. The toner particles are attracted from the carrier granules to the latent image forming a toner powder image on the photoreceptor. The toner powder image is then transferred from the photoreceptor to a copy sheet. The toner particles are heated to permanently affix the powder image to the copy sheet. After each transfer process, the toner remaining on the photoconductor is cleaned by a cleaning device.
One specific type of development apparatus currently used in high-quality xerography is known as a hybrid jumping development (HJD) system. In the HJD system, a layer of toner is laid down evenly on the surface of a “donor roll” which is disposed near the surface of the photoreceptor. Biases placed on the donor roll create two development fields, or potentials, across the gap between the donor roll and the photoreceptor. The action of these fields causes toner particles on the donor roll surface to form a “toner cloud” in the gap, and the toner in this cloud thus becomes available to attach to appropriately charged image areas on the photoreceptor.
In a practical application of hybrid jumping development, a crucial parameter for the quality of the resulting images is the width of the gap between of the donor roll and the photoreceptor. If the width of the gap is too large, noticeable defects in image quality will result. If the gap is too small, there is likely to be arcing between the donor roll and the photoreceptor, which is of course unacceptable. Unfortunately, with the desirable modular design of office equipment, this crucial gap width is hard to control if the module including the donor roll is separate from another module including the photoreceptor. Whenever one or the other module is replaced, the gap width is likely to change. It is therefore desirable to have a testing method, which can be automated by software within the printer, which can accurately estimate the gap width at any time.